Whine, Worry and Song

Whine: I have a cold. I've been debating for a couple of days whether it is a cold, paint fumes, or newly-developed seasonal allergies, but I've come down in favor of a cold. It's not right to have a cold at the time of year when it's too hot for chicken soup. I should fix some seasonal cold-defying menu, like spicy enchiladas, but tonight is YR board meeting night so we're having pizza, the second-worst cold menu.

Worry: Rumor has it that pertussis is going around, and possibly even in the family DOB's sister babysits. That puts a hard new edge on vaccination decisions. (Although I've read even in pro-vaccination accounts that the pertussis immunity doesn't kick in until 5 months, so it wouldn't matter yet.)

Even more immediate, DOB was exposed to hand-foot-and-mouth disease yesterday. (Tip for job applicants: Exposing your interviewer to painful, highly contagious diseases may indeed cause them to remember you, but will not impress them with your professionalism.) He took all reasonable precautions of washing or throwing away everything he might have touched, but we will wait anxiously for the next week to see if that was enough.

Song: D1 is very fond of singing "Do Your Ears Hang Low?", which I looked up all the words to before she was born just for that purpose. DOB has never heard anyone but me sing the song, and somehow he always twists the tune a little bit when he sings it. Once I've heard his twisted version, I can't remember how to sing it correctly for quite some time. So I have been unable to correct him and his version drives me crazy.

We decided we would settle this question once and for all by checking the book out of the library again. So I reserved the book, DOB brought it home, and I sat down at the piano to demonstrate to DOB once and for all what the right tune is. And then I realized in horror that the book had the wrong tune. It was not the one I grew up singing. (Taught to me, no doubt, by my elder siblings, but they usually deny having anything to do with it.)

So we're still stuck. I'm going to have to see if I can pick it out on the piano. Unfortunately tunes of which I only have ancient childhood recollections tend to elude precise rendering.